Advantages and Disadvantages of Dual Flush Toilets

Shopping for a toilet is considerably more complicated than it used to be. Instead of having just one basic type of toilet to choose from, there are numerous toilet styles made by many manufacturers. The dual-flush toilet is one style that is catching on for environmental and financial reasons.

Video of the Day

Advantage - Environmental Impact

Dual-flush toilets have a two setting activation mechanism that uses either a lever with two positions or a two-button system. This allows you to decide whether or not to use a high water volume flush or a low volume flush. The ability to use a lesser amount of water when only flushing away liquids allows you ultimately to save as much as a ½ gallon of water on each of those flushes, reducing the water usage of your home.

Advantage - Cost

In addition to the environmental upside to saving water, this also reduces your water bill over time. Dual-flush toilets are also considered high-efficiency. This means that some states have rebate programs in place that help people to subsidize the cost of upgrading the toilet in their home to a model that uses less water. Certainly, if you have this type of rebate in your state, installing a dual-flush toilet in the home will be more affordable than buying an old, non-efficient model.

Disadvantage - Cleaning

If you buy a dual-flush toilet, you should expect to clean it more often than you had to clean your standard toilets. The reason for this is that after every flush, less water remains in the bowl. The toilet will start to appear dirtier more quickly than standard-flush toilets do.

Disadvantage - Cost

Dual-flush toilets are more expensive than the other options you could choose from. Certainly, they are more expensive than a standard toilet. Both the cost of purchase and the cost of installation are higher than that of a standard toilet. A dual-flush toilet, however, is often more expensive even than other high-efficiency toilet designs.